Movie Review - Speed Racer

I saw the midnight advanced screening of Speed Racer last night.

First off, let me say that I was never a huge fan of the cartoon. I never understood what the big deal was about the storyline and that monkey and brat that were always hanging around just really got on my nerves. Maybe it was just the voices of them that were annoying. Plus, later in life as I came across those adult cartoon movies...you know the ones where everyone looks like a Speed Racer character...it just got a bit disturbing for me to try to get into the cartoon show again as I kept waiting for Trixie to disrobe and give Speed a happy...which obviously never happens.

Anyway, that said, I saw the trailer for this movie months ago and it looked like it was going to be really cool. Except for the obvious 70's feel to it with the hairstyles and clothes, it looked like something I could really enjoy.

I'm sure everyone out there knows the Speed Racer story, so there's no point in my saying anything about what this movie is about, so I will just tell you what I liked and didn't like about what I saw last night.

Definitely, the coolest part was all of the different brilliant colors and special effects. As I do with every movie I see at the theater, I watched thru the end credits and sure enough Cafe FX and Industrial Light & Magic did all of the special effects for the movie. I have come to the conclusion that this combo makes for the best movies out there. They did The Mist and Iron Man and both of those had excellent effects. This movie was just visually stunning! From the very first opening scene showing the WB logo to the very end where the credits are flashing from yellow to green to blue back to yellow, it's all just a fantastical watch...regardless of if you are actually following the story or not. :]

The characters I wasn't too familiar with, so I'm not sure if it was ever explained in the cartoon who Racer X was and how he came to be. I was having trouble following that, since they didn't explain in the movie WHY Racer X concealed his identity. (Perhaps someone wants to share that with me sometime, so that I am not completely clueless.)

Trixie was cute and she and Speed made for an adorable couple. I especially enjoyed the scene they shared at the end and the commentary by his kid brother preceding it.

Probably the only thing I didn't like was ChimChim. I am not a monkey fan. I do not think that all of those dozens of commercials that the big corporations spend millions of dollars on and show during the SuperBowl every year with the monkeys are at all cute or funny. And I don't see the big laugh behind a monkey jumping off a couch to "hide" when someone comes into the room. Sorry, I just don't get it. So there were lots and LOTS of scenes that revolved around ChimChim's antics that had the entire theater erupting in laughter (minus one, of course - me). And I wasn't too fond of the kid brother, either. I wouldn't have thought it was cute to find my kid brother had tagged along unknowingly in the back (trunk?!) of my car as I was getting ready to make out with my significant other. The little shit would have gotten a spanking if I had anything to say about it. Plus...the trunk??

Okay, so it's just a movie. But those specific scenes were annoying for me and apparently stuck with me. :]

The racing scenes, although, a bit confusing and hard to keep track of who was where and doing what, were really cool!

It was a bit boring in a few spots, but all in all a great movie! Highly recommended and except for the pirahna scenes which were a tad graphic in concept, completely kid-safe.

Nothing super spectacular at the end credits like an additional scene. But if you're a huge monkey fan, you would get to see ChimChim jumping around acting goofy for quite a bit of the end credits. Pretty rockin' song at the end, though, so it was worth hanging around for. I will definitely be downloading that song.

Definitely needs to be seen in the theater and I might even go see it again. Hate to admit, but my mind wasn't 100% focused - being that it was midnight and I still had work on my mind - so I'm sure there were a few things here and there that I saw but just didn't fully comprehend at the time.

So after you see it (and you know you will!), let me know what you thought.

Vixy :]